Childhood Disruptions in Caregiving, Adult Parental Attachment, and Borderline Features in Emerging Adulthood: Rejection Sensitivity as a Mechanism of Influence.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a severe psychiatric disorder first diagnosed in adolescence or emerging adulthood, which develops in part in the context of early attachment relationships. We tested a cross-sectional model linking caregiver disruptions during childhood, current parental attachment, and rejection sensitivity, to borderline features in 2,546 emerging adult college students. A structural equation model revealed that childhood caregiver disruptions were associated with lower quality adult parental attachment. Moreover, rejection sensitivity mediated the relationship between adult parental attachment and borderline features. Results suggest a representational model of others as rejecting links early disruptions in caregiving relationships and attachment insecurity, to borderline features in emerging adulthood. Implications for practice are discussed, including for means of targeting cognitive schemas related to rejection sensitivity, which could lead to reductions in BPD symptoms.

Negative Affectivity and Effortful Control in Mothers With Borderline Personality Disorder and in Their Young Children.

Research has examined temperament in individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) but not in their offspring, despite offspring's risk of developing BPD and the importance of temperament in the etiology of BPD. We recruited a low-socioeconomic sample of 36 mothers with BPD and their children ages 4 through 7, and 34 normative comparisons. Replicating prior studies, mothers with BPD reported themselves as having more negative affectivity (frustration, fear) and less effortful control (inhibitory control, attentional control, activation control) than did comparisons. Mothers with BPD also reported that their offspring had more negative affectivity (anger/frustration, fear) and less effortful control (inhibitory control, attentional focusing) than did comparisons. We were concerned about potential bias and shared method variance. We therefore provided validity support for mothers' ratings of their children with teacher ratings of child behavior and child self-report via their story-stem completion narratives. We discuss children's temperamental vulnerability versus differential susceptibility to the environment.

Effect of maternal autonomy and relatedness and borderline personality disorder on adolescent symptomatology.

Several theories propose a relationship between deficits in autonomy and relatedness and the development of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Empirical work supports relationships between maternal BPD and adolescent symptomatology, as well as between maternal autonomy and relatedness and adolescent symptomatology. However, no study has examined how individuals with BPD differ from normative comparisons on autonomy and relatedness, or whether mothers' BPD mediates the relationship between their autonomy and relatedness and their adolescents' symptomatology. We sampled 28 mothers with BPD and their adolescents aged 14-17 years, as well as 28 normative comparisons matched on demographic variables. We assessed BPD as a categorical diagnosis and along a continuum of self-reported borderline features. In a videotaped problem-solving interaction, controlling for current major depressive disorder, mothers with BPD were less likely to promote and more likely to inhibit relatedness, and they were marginally more likely to inhibit but equally likely to promote autonomy with their adolescents. Mothers' total borderline features mediated the relationship between mothers' promotion of autonomy plus relatedness and adolescent internalizing and externalizing symptoms (anxious depression, withdrawn depression, somatic problems, rule breaking, and aggression) and adolescent borderline features (affective instability and self-harm). Mothers' total borderline features also mediated the relationship between mothers' inhibition of autonomy plus relatedness and adolescent internalizing and externalizing symptoms (anxious depression, withdrawn depression, somatic problems, and aggression but not rule breaking) and adolescent borderline features (affective instability and self-harm). We discuss findings in terms of light shed on BPD and the effect of maternal BPD on adolescent development.

Detection and Treatment of Long-Chain Omega-3 Fatty Acid Deficiency in Adolescents with SSRI-Resistant Major Depressive Disorder.

Residual depressive symptoms are commonly observed in adolescents with major depressive disorder (MDD) following treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). This study combined a case-control analysis and an open-label fish oil (FO) trial to investigate the relationship between long-chain omega-3 (LCn-3) fatty acid status and residual depressive symptoms in SSRI-resistant adolescent MDD patients. Baseline erythrocyte docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)(-28%, p=0.0003), but not eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA)(-18%, p=0.2), was significantly lower in patients (n=20) compared with healthy controls (n=20). Patients receiving 10-week low-dose (2.4 g/d, n=7) and high-dose (16.2 g/d, n=7) FO exhibited significant increases in erythrocyte EPA and DHA composition. In the intent-to-treat sample, depressive symptoms decreased significantly in the high-dose group (n=7, -40%, p<0.0001), and there was a trend in the low-dose group (n=10, -20%, p=0.06). Symptom remission was observed in 40% of patients in the low-dose group and 100% of patients in the high-dose group. There were no significant changes in vital signs and adverse events were rated as mild or moderate in severity. These preliminary findings demonstrate that adolescents with SSRI-resistant depression exhibit robust DHA deficits, and suggest that adjunctive FO supplementation is well-tolerated and effective for increasing LCn-3 fatty acid status and augmenting SSRI antidepressant effects.